Porterfield proud of Ireland's show

William Porterfield reflected proudly on Ireland's World Cup campaign after they complete their stay in the tournament with a six-wicket victory against Netherlands. Paul Stirling led an impressive run chase with 101 off 72 balls, adding 177 for the first wicket with Porterfield, which enabled Ireland to hunt down 307 with 14 deliveries to spare.

It was the second time they had chased down more than 300 to win following the famous pursuit against England, in Bangalore, when they reached 329. Two victories was a fair return for Ireland, whose reputation has been further enhanced, but it could have been even better after they wasted a golden chance against Bangladesh and also competed against West Indies.

"We have turned up for every game. We were consistent with the ball and on the field stands but haven't backed it up with the bat consistently what we did today," Porterfield said."But when you put yourselves into winning positions you will win more than you lose. It was great to chase 300 for the second time in the tournament.

"Anytime we got behind the run rate we just picked up. We played good cricket in the second half of the game. So I am very pleased."

Porterfield was happy to play second fiddle to Stirling as he dispatched the Netherlands bowlers around Eden Gardens, but was less pleased with Ireland's display in the field. "It took a lot of pressure of me," he said. "I was happy to play the second fiddle and watch someone smash it around and get a century off 70 balls.

"But we should not have been chasing that [many]. We let ourselves down in the first half. But we have bowled and fielded well throughout the tournament and it was nice to see the batters coming to the party today."

Ireland's competitive showing at the tournament came at an opportune moment with Associates still waiting to find out whether they'll have a chance to appear in the 2015 World Cup when it is trimmed to ten teams.

Although Netherlands finished winless they didn't disgrace themselves and pushed England close during their opening game with Ryan ten Doeschate hitting a fine hundred. He followed that with 106 against Ireland, but Netherlands' bowling has been their weakness and couldn't contain the Ireland top order.

"We batted pretty well to get more than 300 and I think our total was quite defendable," Peter Borren, the captain, said. "We did not show discipline in bowling and dropped some catches, so we are pretty disappointed. We probably should have won the game. Fielding has been an area of concern for us in the last couple of years. Ireland saved 20-25 runs with their fielding and we did just the opposite, giving away runs that we could have saved."